Natural Light Forest Portraits - C&C Please

Kenny_D

I've been wanting to work on my portrait photography for a while now as it's not an area I've had much practice with. I was out walking at the lakes in Blessington with my girlfriend on Saturday and she kindly agreed to let me practice taking a few portraits of her. I found a nice little spot in the forest with the sunlight coming through the trees and took about 30 shots. There are 4 below and the finished set has about 10-12 shots. I'm quite happy with these pictures but would love to hear some feedback. Any suggestions for post processing or composition? For the vertical portrait where she's looking up into the corner of the frame I wanted that soft diffused sunflare look, there's very little PP on this one. The flare is as I shot it. Is it too soft/diffused? Is there any good presets available for lightroom for this kind of stuff as a starting point? Would love to hear some feedback or suggestions to improve these shots. Thanks


Aisling by Darren Kenny, on Flickr


Aisling by Darren Kenny, on Flickr


Aisling by Darren Kenny, on Flickr


Aisling by Darren Kenny, on Flickr

magicbastarder

i'd be inclined to dial the highlights back a bit, they're a bit high key - you'd expect slightly more muted light given the surroundings.

dirtyghettokid

love the first one! the funny face one is good too.

the last one looks a bit too green for my liking, and i'd probably have the flare going right behind, as opposed to clipping the side of her head. but that's just me

Kenny_D

Thanks lads, appreciate the feedback. Will make some further adjustments. I was going for that sun flare look but was my first time to try it out, still a bit to work on I guess. Felt quite inspired by some of Gloobags awesome portraits, love the soft natural, sunlit style he has. I think I need to learn a bit more on post processing, I mostly stick to basic stuff in Lightroom.

mehfesto

Given that you had no flash, I'm impressed by the results.

What I tend to do when I've no flash is to underexpose. Not always, but just as an alternative option; something to play around with. I find it's easier to claw back information when it's underexposed - there's no gaping white bits with no info, and it's rarely an issue with blacks for some reason.

Anyway here's an example (albeit a slightly extreme one)

Before


After


I always shoot in raw and I like to think of the photos as two different plains - the model and the background.
I find that with a bit of selective recovery, I can create tonally compete images.

But generally, I never leave the house without my flashes!

kelly1

Nice set Darren. The only comments I'd make are that the shots have a green or magenta colour cast. Maybe that intentional. I think they also err on the side of over-exposure. The b&w shot doesn't work well for me, I think it's because the sun is in her face and she's squinting a bit.

Kenny_D

I can probably dial the exposure back a bit. They were underexposed initially and metering for the background so I switched to spot metering and metered from her face, the background blew out but it gave me the look I wanted straight from the camera. Perhaps a little too blow in some areas but I haven't tried to dial back any highlights in these shots, they're all as I took them. Again no flash with me so just tried to work with the light I had in a shaded forest. I'd like to learn to use my flash a bit more though, I only bought my first flash about 2 weeks ago and starting to read strobist so still have a long way to go but flash and portraits in general is something I really want to try approve so I appreciate all the feedback

Thanks Kelly, I see what you mean about the b&w white shot. I have another b&w one with her back to the sun which I prefer but need to work on it another bit. Will put it up when I get a chance.

The color casts are added in lightroom, maybe not to everyones taste, I was playing around with split toning and just thought they made the images a little more interesting or stand out a bit. The reddish tint on the second shot was intentional though I've since increased the contrast on it slightly as I thought it might have been a little too diffused, thoughts?:


Aisling_Edit by Darren Kenny, on Flickr

kelly1

Yeah, I prefer the shot with increased contrast. Not overly fond of the red/magenta tint though

smash

mehfesto wrote: »

Given that you had no flash, I'm impressed by the results.

But you have a lot of noise there now. You could have just shot the photo better.

amdgilmore

Speaking purely as a viewer, I think the fourth one would be really nice with a more autumnal colour-cast. Maybe the best of the bunch. I like the light and the highlights on the top of her hair.

I think when it comes to post, something we don't ask ourselves enough is 'why am I doing this and is it really necessary?'. Sometimes we just edit because we can, or because we get bored and don't want all the photos in a set to look the same. But colour in particular can have a huge impact on the mood and the overall impression a photo gives.

In this instance, what is the significance of the green cast and what does it bring to the photo that a warmer autumnal cast wouldn't?

CUPimus

Really love the first photo, it beautiful!

mehfesto

smash wrote: »

But you have a lot of noise there now. You could have just shot the photo better.

How so? I didn't have an ND filter at the time.
Also, you read my post, right?